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Ricardo Mancera
English 1010
Dr. Schroeter
7 December, 2014
Video Games: The Future or Reversion of Humanity?
Video games have always been a source of controversy. Whether they are being praised
as master pieces, being called a leap forward in technology by introducing new styles to
play games like motion controls or Virtual Reality, or a game of a generation by having a
deep story to the game, amazing graphics, and tight controls. But they have also been known
as A way to rot a persons brain by having a person stare at a screen for hours on end, a
meaningless past time, or a waste of time. But how far can video games go? In the two
articles I have chosen they expand on these questions. The first article Are video games the
future of education? written by Elena Malykhina and the second article What Science
knows as about video games and violence written by Brandon Keim. The two different
articles based upon the topic that video games can have a lasting effect on the developing
brain.
I wanted to expand on this subject so I found two articles, Fact or Fiction?: Video
Games are the Future of Education By Elena Malykhina, and What Science Knows About
Video Games and Violence By Brandon Keim. After examining the rhetoric choices both
authors uses to persuade the reader, I found that Malykhina wrote the most effective article as
compared to Keim. Malykhina touched on both sides of the argument and she did a better job
of keeping a neutral standpoint.

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The first article I have chosen is titled Fact or Fiction?: Video Games are the Future of
Education by Elena Malykhina. This was published on the Scientificamerican.com, In this
article Malykhina talks about how video games and advancements in technology can affect
how students learn. She talks about how technology has been advancing over the years and
how its being implemented in classes at school. She talks about how students can perform
better using video games as a way to learn as opposed to Book Work.
One of the rhetorical choices that she chose to touch on was statistics/data. She
mentioned how some schools with the technology used to play educational video games see
an increase in performance in students, while other schools without the technology do not.
One of the tests that Malykhina mentioned was a study done by the University of Cambridge
how students that were placed in front of a computer with video games that where being used
to challenge their memory. The study concluded that brain testing video games improve a
childs performance.
Another Rhetoric choice that she chose was logic. In the article she uses logic to inform
the reader how video games can help a childs brain grow and develop. She also touched on
the old ways of learning. She talked about how technology in classes can be a good thing,
but it doesnt compare to some of the older methods of teaching. She mentioned how
teaching out of a book can be more effective than putting a child in front of a computer, and
less costly than having an entire lesson plan focused on having a child in front of a computer.
The last rhetorical choice that she chose was the tone of the article. The tone was very
optimistic; she talked about the future uses of technology in schools, even though she

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mentioned about how costly they can be. She stated about how Nearly half the teachers
surveyed say it is the low-preforming students who generally benefit from the use of games,
and more than half believe games have the ability to motivate struggling and special
education students.
The second article that I chose was What Science Knows about Video Games and
Violence By Brandon Keim published on Novanext.com on Thursday, 28 February 2013.
Brandon Keim is a freelance writer, specializing in science, nature and technology. He has
had background in this field of writing, and has even written on many different websites
including WEIRDs award winning science section.
In the article Keim talked about the science of aggression in video games. He focuses on
the science behind aggression and violence in video games. He touches on multiple ways
how playing violent video games can affect others. Playing violent video games increases
thoughts, angry feelings, and physiological arousal.
One of the Rhetoric choices that Keim introduces he references other topic in media
involved with the same controversy, such as comic books and injuries in children. Doing
this, he talks about how comic books where once the center of controversy in media, by
influencing kids to be superheroes. He talks about how comic where a go to for needless
violence. He talks about how video games have become the center for needless violence, by
giving examples on how the bestselling games have a mature rating. Games like Call of
Duty and God of War are prime examples of bets sellers, but are known for their blood and
gore.

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A second Rhetorical choice that Keim touched on was tone. The tone of this article was
informative but there where times where keim took a light hearted approach to the situation.
A times, while reading the article I found it to be humorous, like when hes explaining how a
game such as call of duty can be a glorious blood fest, or how a video game done correctly
can be A Well-designed piece of action-hero arcade blockbuster thumb candy.
The third Rhetorical choice that Keim talked about was data. In the article data was a
major factor in the credibility of Keims writing. In the article he used numerical data to
inform the reader on how much video games have an impact on the market. Given that firstperson shooters represent a $5 billion market, played by millions of people every day. He
mentioned how not many studies have been done on video games and aggression but stated
Lacking in such a study, scientists have studied video game violence in more limited ways.
Typically this involves asking small numbers of students to play games for a few minuets,
then seeing whether their behavior changes.
Overall I found that Malykhina wrote the more effective article. In her article she managed
to keep a neutral standpoint on the topic at hand. She touched on both sides of the argument
but didnt take sides. She talked about how schools can and cannot benefit from using video
games in their curriculum, while Keim took on a more one sided approach to the topic. Keim
talked about the science behind aggression in video games, and how there are more tests to
be done to find if video games cause aggression in kids.

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Works Sited:
Malykhina, Elena. Fact or Fiction?: Video Games are the Future of Education.
Scientificamerican.com Published September 12, 2014
Keim, Brandon. What science knows about video games and aggression. Novanext.com
Published Thursday, 28 Febuary 2013